As any science fiction fan knows, antimatter is the reverse image of matter where the electrons in antimatter carry a positive charge and the protons carry a negative charge. When a piece of antimatter encounters normal matter, both of the masses are destroyed and converted to large amounts of energy.
Antimatter is the primary source of fuel for space vessels in Star Trek.
It would take the CERN particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland one billion years to produce enough antimatter to equal one gram (one 1/454th of a pound). However, that one gram would be enough to vaporize the entire city of Chicago.
People actually secrete antimatter. As a result of the radioactive decay of Potassium-40 found in the human body, a person who weighs 175 pounds emits about 180 positrons (positive electrons) of antimatter a day. These positrons immediately collide with matter and are destroyed. However, the amount of energy released from the destruction of a single positron is not noticeable under ordinary circumstances.
Theoretically, matter and anti-matter were created in equal amounts. So why is there so much more apparent matter than antimatter in the universe, and why didn't all of the matter and antimatter cancel each other out, leaving nothing in the universe but a whole lot of energy? Good question.
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| USDE, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
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